Music at St. Paul’s
Music at St. Paul's has been a core part of St. Paul's worship for over 100 years. The program has grown and changed considerably; as you can tell from pictures, we have a very different soprano section in 2023 than we did back in 1965!
The St. Paul's Adult Choir is open to any singer with some experience in singing and reading music in a choir. We are proud of the level of worship music we provide our parish, with choristers having a wide background of musical experience ranging from professional to amateur and from ages 18-80+. The choir sings anthems from the classical canon of Anglican, Catholic and other Protestant traditions. We also strive to sing music of new composers from diverse backgrounds. The choir sings regularly at the Sunday 10 a.m. services from Labor Day to Memorial Day; during the summer, the music program frequently offers soloists and other special music. If you are interested in the St. Paul's Adult Choir, please contact our music director, Sam Anderson.
The music program promotes local professional music ensembles in Kansas City. We are proud to open our doors to the KC community to share the beauty and holiness of all types of music.
The music program also works to bring in the very best of local musicians outside of our typical worship services. We are excited about a new formal music series that began in February of 2023. Please check our website, the church newsletter and our social media pages in the future for more information as we rebuild our evening and weekend performances.
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Director
Sam Anderson is the Director of Music at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Kansas City alongside organist Kurt Knecht and a 40-voice combined professional and amateur adult choir that sings an advanced level of diverse, sacred choral music. He is also the Associate Director of Choirs at Liberty North High School. He was the Director of Choirs at Rockhurst High School from 2008-2022.
In 2013, Sam was announced as one of 217 quarter-finalists for the Music Educator Award presented by The Recording Academy and the GRAMMY Foundation. In 2017 he was named the Outstanding Choral Director of the Kansas City District of the Missouri Choral Directors Association. He was a singer in the Grammy Award-winning Kansas City Chorale from 2012-2019.
Locally, Sam has been an active singer in the Missouri Choral Artists and in Cardinalis, under the direction of Anthony Maglione. He is a member of the Grammy-nominated St. Tikhon Chamber Choir. He most recently joined the Grammy-award nominated PaTRAM Institute Male Choir on its two-week world premier tour, and he joined in recording of a new TTBB setting of the Rachmaninov All-Night Vigil in Jerusalem, Israel under the direction of Maestro Ekatarina Antonenko. He lives in Union Hill, Kansas City, MO with his wife Sarah Tannehill Anderson.
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Organist
Kurt Knecht is a composer and keyboardist currently living in Kansas City, Missouri. His compositions have been described as “funky” and “joyous” in the Washington Post and “brilliant in concept” in The Tracker magazine.
His music has been performed at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall and by Grammy Award-winning groups like the KC Chorale and the Washington Chorale. In 2016, he was the commissioned composer for the national convention of the Organ Historical Society where his Toccata, Adagio and Fugue for organ and percussion was premiered at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. In 2021, he was again commissioned by the OHS for its National Convention where movements of his Nettleton Diary were premiered throughout the country.
He has been featured on the American Public Media program Pipedreams multiple times as a composer and performer. As an eclectic performer, Kurt has been a featured soloist with groups ranging from Smokey Robinson to The Florida Orchestra, and he is the frequent collaborative organist/pianist for the multiple Grammy Award-winning KC Chorale.
Kurt regularly appears as a concert organist and collaborative pianist and has performed at the national conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the American Choral Directors Association. He is the organist at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Kansas City and the co-founder of MusicSpoke, a company creating the world’s largest marketplace for artist-owned sheet music by making it easy for composers to self-publish and monetize their music.
